During the trip, Jukes was asked what a Reform government would want from a polling company and replied: “Showing that we’re winning,” according to the same person.
JL Partners director James Johnson shared several pictures of the Egypt excursion on social media, but Jukes did not appear in any of them. A spokesperson for JL Partners said that Jukes had been invited in a personal capacity and, like other guest speakers, had expenses covered, adding: “Anyone familiar with these sorts of events will know that no inference can reasonably be drawn from the participation of any individual speaker.”
A Reform UK spokesman acknowledged that Jukes, who resigned from his official role earlier this month, was at the gathering but also said it was not on behalf of the party, saying: “Mr Jukes attended the event in question in his capacity as a political consultant and not as part of any political activities in connection with his membership of Reform UK. Reform UK had no involvement and no breach of electoral law has taken place.”
A representative for Jukes said: “There is an active police investigation which has just been announced and as such our client is not commenting further until that is concluded. For the record, he denies any allegations of wrongdoing.”
Caught on camera
Jukes served as Farage’s closest aide and communications director until earlier this month, when he stepped down in the wake of an undercover sting. He was filmed making arrangements for a fictitious wealthy American benefactor and his son to pay for a set of polls by JL Partners on behalf of Reform that were published in British national newspapers.
The polls were released without disclosing the ties to Reform, prompting an inquiry by the British Polling Council, the industry watchdog, which specifies that all research carried out by pollsters which enters the public domain “must include reference to the … client commissioning the survey” as well as dates, methodology and sample size.
